Industry Dynamics: Rethinking the Effects of Velocity on Product Innovation

Focusing on new product development, I present a framework that dispels this notion that speed always leads to business success. I explain that to simply characterize business environments as
…

Focusing on new product development, I present a framework that dispels this notion that speed always leads to business success. I explain that to simply characterize business environments as fast-changing or highly dynamic, is to overlook the fact that the velocity of an industry - its rate and direction of change - is composed of multiple factors, each with a distinct velocity of its own. These factors, or industry dimensions as we call them, include: technologies, products, competitors, demand and regulations. It is rare for an industry to be uniformly high-velocity in nature (i.e. all dimensions are changing rapidly and discontinuously). Instead, businesses typically face what we call “velocity regimes”, patterns of multiple velocities of all the different dimensions involved. Thus, I will argue that it is misguided to focus on designing and managing a business that is uniformly fast. What’s important is determining your “velocity regime” – the multiple different rates and directions of change in your world – and then ensuring that different innovation activities are organized and coordinated to effectively respond to these different velocities.

An excellent concept of the tightness of the 'homology' of events that can provide continuous innovation. I suggest that a Consumer Hedonics (H) value needs to be inserted. This is the identification value that P&G developed whereby the unmet needs of the market forces the scouting for a technology that provides the benefits the new item must deliver.

Business week - MARCH 27, 2006Fast Company a magazine dedicated to reporting about activities of &quot;fast companies“Thus, the advice seems to be focused on how companies can speed things up. Cut that process step! Shorten that product development cycle! There&apos;s tremendous pressure to get products out fast, in start-ups and large corporations alike

Nunes and Breene“is Steve Jobs the consummate foot-dragger?”Patience Really Is a Virtue

The way people view time differs from culture to culture, as observed and described by researcher Edward Hall. Monochronic time cultures emphasize schedules, a precise reckoning of time, and promptness. Time is viewed as a discrete commodity. People with this cultural orientation tend to do one thing after another, finishing each activity before starting the next. On the other hand, in polychronic cultures, people tend to handle multiple things concurrently (or intermittently during a time period) and to emphasize the number of completed transactions and the number of people involved, rather than the adherence to time schedule. Being on time is less important in polychronic cultures than in monochronic cultures. The way people view time differs from culture to culture, as observed and described by researcher Edward Hall. Monochronic time cultures emphasize schedules, a precise reckoning of time, and promptness. Time is viewed as a discrete commodity. People with this cultural orientation tend to do one thing after another, finishing each activity before starting the next. On the other hand, in polychronic cultures, people tend to handle multiple things concurrently (or intermittently during a time period) and to emphasize the number of completed transactions and the number of people involved, rather than the adherence to time schedule. Being on time is less important in polychronic cultures than in monochronic cultures. Monochronic people (Hall terms as M- people) tend to view activities and time in discreet segment or compartments, which are to be dealt with one at a time. It is not logical to have two activities going on at the same time. M-people can become frustrated with Polychronic people (P-people) who view time as something fluid, and who easily alter schedules to shifting priorities. In P time cultures, meetings may start late, run overtime, and allow outside issues to interrupt team meetings. In addition, multiple activities may be scheduled at the same time, and adherence to deadlines may depend on the strength of the relationship. (International Business; A basic Guide for Women, Wilen, 2001)Monochronic people (Hall terms as M- people) tend to view activities and time in discreet segment or compartments, which are to be dealt with one at a time. It is not logical to have two activities going on at the same time. M-people can become frustrated with Polychronic people (P-people) who view time as something fluid, and who easily alter schedules to shifting priorities. In P time cultures, meetings may start late, run overtime, and allow outside issues to interrupt team meetings. In addition, multiple activities may be scheduled at the same time, and adherence to deadlines may depend on the strength of the relationship. (International Business; A basic Guide for Women, Wilen, 2001)

9.
SOME OBSERVATIONS
• It seems that most industries have high-velocity environments
• Few industry specific definitions and substantiations
• An assumption that high technology = high-velocity
• An assumption that velocity = speed
• Simple, aggregated, erroneous and inconsistent conceptualizations.
• We argue that the above occurs because studies have:
– treated velocity as single, latent descriptor i.e., a unidimensional
concept
– Ignored that velocity is a vector i.e., it has a rate and a direction
of change

10.
ENVIRONMENTAL VELOCITY:
A MULTIDIMENSIONAL VECTOR
• Consider what is changing?
• Their rate of change (speed at which they move).
• Their direction of change?

11.
OUR FRAMEWORK
• We conceptualize velocity in terms of:
– Multiple dimensions (demand, competitors,
technology, regulatory, and products)
– Each dimension has a rate and direction of
change
– The degree to which different dimensions might
have different velocities (homology)
– The degree to which the velocities of different
dimensions might affect one another over time
(coupling)

17.
IMPLICATIONS OF VELOCITY HOMOLOGY
• Affects how we think about the relationship between an
organization and the temporal characteristics of its environment.
• Keeping in time with the environment (external entrainment) is still
important, but ….
• synchronizing organizational activities (internal entrainment)
to be uniformly fast/slow might not be.
• Effective management is more about rhythm and
synchronization, rather than being simply fast or slow.
17

19.
TEMPORAL ORIENTATIONS
• “A temporal orientation is a cognitive concept that describes how
individuals and teams conceive of time”

20.
TEMPORAL ORIENTATIONS
MONOCHRONIC TEAMS POLYCHRONIC TEAMS
Focus on one job at a time Focus on many jobs at once
View time as linear and fixed View time as tangible and malleable
Strictly adhere to plans and hate
missing deadlines
Frequently change plans and don’t worry
about deadlines
Guided by “clock time” Guided by “event time”
Time is money Time is information
Simple and divergent velocity regimes Conflicted and integrated velocity
regimes
(Ancona, Okhuysen & Perlow, 2001; Bluedorn & Denhardt, 1988; Hall, 1959).

21.
SYNCHRONY
• Research on environmental
velocity highlights "the
importance of organizations
operating “in time” with their
environments and in synchrony
across their subunits and
activities“ (McCarthy et al. 2010:
618)

22.
THE CASE FOR POLYCHRONICITY
• “The polychronic teams proved to be
superior information brokers, absorbing
and disseminating more-insightful
information than their average and
monochronic counterparts” (Soutiaris
and Maestro. 2012)
• “Under some circumstances, top
management teams perform better
when they accept—even relish—
interruptions.” (Soutiaris and Maestro.
2012)

23.
SO, IN SUM
• Most industries do not have classic high
velocity conditions
• Thus, being fast has it benefits, but it is rare
that all business functions need to be
uniformly fast
• Industry dynamics are complex
– Multiple velocity dimensions, each with a
rate and direction of change
– Homology and coupling – velocity regimes
• Performance is linked to appropriate rhythms,
synchronization, and temporal orientations